TEN INDIANA CAVES. 123 



advance. Along this passage a small stream flows, 

 disappearing through a hole in the floor near the 

 entrance to the larger room. Other than this, both 

 right and left passages leaving the main entry are dry. 



The passage at the left of the main entrance to the 

 cave is about 150 feet long by twenty broad, and con- 

 tains no points of especial interest. No stalactites 

 worthy of notice are found in this cave. The name 

 "Shawnee" has been given it from its being near the 

 center of the former hunting grounds of the Shawnee 

 Indians. It was doubtless used by them as a place of 

 shelter since many relics have, from time to time, 

 been found about its mouth. In the early settlement 

 of this region the nitrous earth on the floor of the 

 two dry passages was used in the making of saltpetre ; 

 and the stream flowing from the main cave was after- 

 wards dammed and utilized for a number of years in 

 driving a woolen, grist and saw mill. 



This stream is one of the largest issuing from an 

 Indiana cave. It flows for a long distance under- 

 ground and in several places south of Shawnee Cave 

 the roof of its subterranean passage has caved in, 

 causing deep ravines at the bottom of which the 

 stream meanders, until it reaches a point where the 

 roof of stone remains intact, and the entrance of a 

 iu'\v cave begins, into which the waters disappear, as 



" Alph, the sacred river, ran 

 Through caverns measureless to man, 

 Down to a sunless sea." 



In this stream the blind fish, Amblyopsis spelceus De- 

 Kay, occurs in numbers, though never more than two 



